GUSTAVO MÉNDEZ
EL UNIVERSAL

A student demonstration Thursday ended up with by violence, as the Caracas Metropolitan Police and the National Guard broke up the rally outside the headquarters of the National Electoral Council (CNE), downtown Caracas.

The tense situation lead to violence when a group of students who were rejecting the proposed changes the Constitution advanced by President Hugo Chávez tried to chain themselves to the stairways in the top electoral body, following their meeting with the CNE directors. In parallel, another group of students clashed with Caracas Metropolitan Police (PM) officers outside the CNE building.

As a result, a number of students were injured. Violence spread to other areas in Caracas. A few hours following the rally at the CNE, a group of students supporting President Hugo Chávez went in the campus of the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) and attacked the students who were there. They threw stones against the windows of the UCV President's Office. Unbelievably, the pro-government students threw a significant number of tear gas canisters -which are supposed to be used exclusively by the state security corps.

Chaos
The students marching to reject the constitutional reform designated a small group to deliver a paper to the CNE directors. The group arrived in the CNE headquarters around 1:30 p.m. The group, comprising Stalin González, Ricardo Sánchez, and Yon Goicoechea, among others, went in without any problem and met with CNE chair Tibisay Lucena and directors Germán Yépez and Vicente Díaz.

On their way out, when going down the stairways in the lobby of CNE building, the students tried to tie themselves to the handrails of the stairways. National Guard troops prevented the students from achieving their goal.

Meanwhile, outside the CNE building, the situation heated up, and some students tried to trespass a cordon of the Caracas Metropolitan Police. As they failed to break the barrier, students started breaking the police trucks' windows and knocking down security gates.

In a trance of madness, a student sprayed gasoline on a PM car, but a fellow student took the gasoline container from him and gave it to one police officer. The students asking for calm were outnumbered by the craze and vandalism of a few students. With skin-deep eagerness, PM officers displayed their full repressive power against demonstrators.

A cloud of tear gas covered the avenue near the headquarters of CNE, while a rain of plastic bullets fell on the protesters. Local TV news channel Globovisión cameras recorded the moment when some five police officers punched a student, breaking two of his teeth.

Late on Thursday, student leader Freddy Guevara offered a news conference to regret the incidents, and acknowledged that some students were involved in excessive actions.

However, he explained they tried to chain themselves to the handrails of the CNE stairways to send a message to the government to listen to them and to consider them. According to Guevara, violence also results from the fact that their student movement is subject to political discrimination. In this regard, Guevara stressed that while police corps restrict their rallies, pro-government groups are allowed to demonstrate freely. Guevara announced that next week they are rallying at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ).

Translated by Maryflor Suárez R.
msuarez@eluniversal.com